FOR GAMERS.............

2) Disable direct sound. Run Half-Life with the command line argument "-wavonly". Edit the Half-Life shortcut. The 'target' field should say: "HL.EXE -wavonly".

GETTING STUCK ON LADDERS IN MULTIPLAYER
If you are getting stuck on the tops of ladders in a multiplayer game, make sure that the server you are running on does not have the variable sv_airaccelerate set to zero. Any value other than zero will work properly.

MULTIPLAYER FRAMERATE ISSUE
If you are experiencing low framerate in long multiplayer games, it may be caused by too many decals. Decals are used to display spray paint, bulletholes, and blood effects in multiplayer. You can adjust the console variable "r_decals" to set a lower limit. The default value is 4096. For better performance, try setting "r_decals 500". Bring down the console (using the ~ key) and type "r_decals 500". You can set r_decals to any value between 0 (completely disables these effects) and 4096 (normal value for single player).

TURNING OFF DATA COMPRESSION
When playing Half-Life online turning off data compression can significantly improve your latency. To turn off data compression go to your dial up connection in the Dial-Up networking area of your computer. Right click on your dial up connection and go to 'Properties', click on the Server Types tab at the top and uncheck the software compression box.

NEW COMMAND LINE SWITCHES IN THIS UPDATE
"-w #" sets the video mode width where # is the width in pixels of desired video mode.

"-d3d" selects the Direct3D engine
"-soft" selects the Software engine
"-gl" selects the OpenGL engine
"-gldrv " selects the GL Driver. The two choices are "Default" and "3dfxgl.dll".

"-win" selects windowed mode
"-full" selects full screen mode

"-gamegauge " runs the demo in Game Gauge mode. This is a benchmark utility that runs through a demo as fast as possible and stores the framerate in the file fps.txt in the Half-Life directory.

JOYSTICK AND GAMEPAD CONFIGURATION
Enable use of joysticks or gamepads by checking the joystick box in the Configuration/Controls/Advanced controls menu. Joystick and gamepad buttons can then be configured through the Configuration/Controls menu.

Valve thanks James Barnes at First-Person Gaming, Inc. for permission to use his excellent documentation on joystick support. Information on their products are available on the Internet at http://www.fpgaming.com/.

Half-Life supports standard joysticks, digital joysticks and advanced controllers like the FPgaming Assassin 3D, the Logitech WingMan Warrior and the SpaceTec IMC SpaceOrb.

To enable Half-Life joystick support, verify that your joystick or game controller is selected in the Joystick control panel applet and has been calibrated and tested, then launch Half-Life. Check the joystick box in the Configuration/Controls/Advanced controls menu of Half-Life.

For advanced controllers, you will also need to have a configuration file called joystick.cfg. Typically this configuration file should be obtained from your game controller company. However you can create your own and place this file in the Valve subdirectory of your Half-Life directory. Half-Life will automatically execute this configuration file each time you start the game.

The configuration files for common game controllers are included below.

Half-Life Joystick functionality

1. Proportional movement (the farther you move the stick, the faster you move)
2. Support for up to 32 buttons (JOY1-JOY4 and AUX5-AUX32)
3. Sensitivity setting for each control (allows tuning and inverting the control direction)
4. Dead-zone setting for each control
5. Support for all 6 axes (X, Y, Z, R, U, V)
6. Mapping of any axis to any control (Forward, Look, Side, Turn)
7. Support for absolute controls (like joysticks) and relative controls (like trackballs and spinners)

The default joystick setting is for joystick left/right movement to control turning and for joystick forward/backward movement to control moving forward/backward. To control strafing, assign the 'strafe modifier' to one of your joystick buttons (via the Configuration/Controls menu). To control joystick looking, assign the 'Joystick look modifier' to one of your joystick buttons (also via the Configuration/Controls menu).

'Reverse mouse' in the Configuration/Controls/Advanced controls menu also changes the direction the joystick has to move when looking up and down.

The following variables can be set in your joystick.cfg.

These variables control your sensitivity settings:
Command Name Command Action Default NOTES:
Variable: Joyforwardsensitivity
Function: Controls the ramp-up speed or how much joystick movement is required for moving "full speed" forward and backward
Default: -1.0
Comments: If your joystick is not as fast as you think it should be try a setting of -1.5, you will reach full speed with only half of the movement.